Paths forward in understanding kilonovae: HEAVYMETAL VI

7 Jun 2026, 09:00 → 12 Jun 2026, 12:35 Europe/Dublin

McDonald Forest Hills

 

This is the sixth meeting of the HEAVYMETAL consortium and an open meeting for external participants. HEAVYMETAL is an ERC-funded synergy between 4 institutes that study "How neutron star mergers make heavy elements".

In our meetings, we bring together experts ranging from the modeling and observations of neutron star mergers, gamma-ray bursts, stellar abundances, radiative transfer, and atomic structure (theory & experiments) to address problems in this multi-disciplinary field.

The meeting will be held in Kinlochard, Aberfoyle, Scotland.

Confirmed Invited Speakers

Camilla Hansen

Andreas Koch-Hansen

Alexander Ji

Jillian Rastinejad

Masaomi Tanaka

Kenta Hotokezaka

Amy Gall

John Sheil

Christian Clear

Sanjana Curtis

Meng-Ru Wu

Stephane Goriely

Anton Wallner

Quentin Pognan

Georgios Lioutas

Chris Fontes

Stuart Loch

Steven Bromley

Scientific Organizing Committee

Stuart Sim, Aayush Arya, Fiona McNeill, Éanna Donohoe, Chun-Ming Yip

General Information (v2) HeavyMetal VI - Kinlochard.pdf

Sunday 7 June

19:00 → 20:00 Welcome Buffet

Monday 8 June

07:30 → 09:00 Break: Breakfast

09:00 → 10:25 Talks: Nucleosynthesis and r-process

Convener: Leo Mulholland (QUB)

09:00 Welcome and opening remarks

Speaker: Stuart Sim (Queen's University Belfast)

09:15 Neutrinos and nucleosynthesis in binary neutron star mergers

Speaker: Meng-Ru Wu (Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica)

260608_HeavyMetal_MRW.pdf

09:50 Progress in the modelling of nuclear inputs for r-process simulations

Speaker: Stephane Goriely (ULB)

Goriely.pdf

10:25 → 11:10 Break: Coffee

11:10 → 12:25 Talks: R-process and merger simulations

Convener: Aayush Arya (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen)

11:10 End-to-end modelling of kilonovae

Speaker: Sanjana Curtis (Oregon State University)

HEAVYMETAL_Curtis.pdf

11:45 Systematic Analysis of Dynamical Ejecta Properties and Nucleosynthesis in Binary Neutron Star Mergers

Speaker: Vimal Vijayan (GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung)

12:05 A Data-Driven Model for r-Process Production Patterns

Speaker: Zewei Xiong (GSI)

12:25 → 14:15 Break: Lunch

14:15 → 15:30 Talks: Merger Simulations

Convener: Sanjana Curtis (Oregon State University)

14:15 Low-T/|W| instabilities in differentially rotating neutron stars

Speaker: Georgios Lioutas (Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies)

14:50 End-to-end neutron-star merger models

Speaker: Oliver Just (GSI Darmstadt)

Oliver_Just_slides.pdf

15:10 Fluctuations in binary neutron star merger simulations

Speaker: Christian Schwebler (GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt, Germany)

15:30 → 16:15 Coffee

16:15 → 17:15 Chaired Discussion: Nucleosynthesis and Merger Simulations

Conveners: Georgios Lioutas (Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies), Oliver Just (GSI Darmstadt)

19:00 → 20:00 Break: Dinner

Tuesday 9 June

07:30 → 09:00 Break: Breakfast

09:00 → 10:10 Talks: Stellar abundances

Convener: Dr Darach Watson (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen)

09:00 Challenges in observational studies of heavy elements

Speaker: Camilla Juul Hansen (Frankfurt)

Scotland_talk_CJHansen.pdf

09:35 Lanthanide and actinide variation in metal-poor stars

Speaker: Alexander Ji (University of Chicago / KICP)

Alexander_Ji_HEAVYMETAL_2026.pdf

10:10 → 10:55 Coffee

10:55 → 12:25 Talks: Kilonovae and Heavy Elements: I

Convener: Quentin Pognan (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)

10:55 Identification and Abundance Estimate of Heavy Elements in Kilonova Spectra

Speaker: Masaomi Tanaka (Tohoku University)

Tanaka_20260609.pdf

11:30 Late-time kilonova emission and r-process dust formation

Speaker: Kenta Hotokezaka (University of Tokyo)

r-processdust_KH.pdf

12:05 Nebular Emission Lines of Lanthanides and Actinides

Speaker: Andreas Flörs (GSI)

12:30 → 14:00 Break: Lunch

14:00 → 15:30 Talks: Kilonovae and Heavy Elements: II

Convener: Jillian Rastinejad (NASA Einstein Fellow, University of Maryland)

14:00 Observational signatures of kilonovae arising from neutron star mergers with a magnetar remnant

Speaker: Quentin Pognan (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics)

14:35 Direct detection of interstellar radionuclides – messengers of heavy element nucleosynthesis and recent nearby cosmic explosions

Speaker: Anton Wallner (Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf)

15:10 Strontium vs. helium: Atomic data and microphysics decode the 1μm feature in the kilonova AT2017gfo

Speaker: Aayush Arya (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen)

15:30 → 16:15 Coffee

16:15 → 17:15 Chaired Discussion: Observations and Spectral Modelling

Conveners: Albert Sneppen, Camilla Juul Hansen (Frankfurt)

19:00 → 21:00 Break: Dinner

Wednesday 10 June

07:30 → 09:00 Break: Breakfast

09:00 → 10:15 Talks: Kilonova NLTE modelling

Convener: Andreas Flörs (GSI)

09:00 NLTE Modeling of Kilonovae

Speaker: Christopher Fontes (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

09:35 Nebular emission lines in kilonovae spectra - insights from atomic calculations

Speaker: Leo Mulholland (QUB)

Leo_Mulholland.pdf

09:55 The Effect of Ionisation in Collisional Radiative Modelling

Speaker: Michael McCann (Queen's University Belfast, UK)

10:15 → 11:00 Coffee

11:00 → 12:15 Talks: Atomic Structure and Collision Rate Calculations

Convener: Christopher Fontes (Los Alamos National Laboratory)

11:00 Thermal and Non-Thermal Ionization Properties of Te and Sr Ions

Speaker: Steven Bromley (Auburn University)

11:35 Dirac R-matrix electron impact excitation of Mo I-IV

Speaker: John Henry (Queen's University Belfast, UK)

11:55 Theoretical and experimental study of 4f-5d Fano resonances in EUV photoabsorption of gold

Speaker: David McKeagney (University College Dublin)

12:15 → 13:15 Break: Lunch To Go

13:15 → 18:45 Excursions

19:00 → 21:00 Break: Dinner Buffet

Thursday 11 June

07:30 → 09:00 Break: Breakfast

09:00 → 10:30 Talks: Atomic Spectroscopy Experiments

Convener: Emma Sokell (University College Dublin)

09:00 Spectroscopy of Highly Charged Heavy Ions with an Electron Beam Ion Trap

Speaker: Amy Gall (Auburn University)

HEAVYMETAL_26_Gall.pdf

09:35 An overview of dielectronic recombination and a summary of Auburn University experimental facilities

Speaker: Stuart Loch (Auburn University)

10:10 Dual-Comb Spectroscopy of Heavy Metals

Speaker: Hope Dannar (University of Arizona)

2026_6_DCS of Heavy Metals_Dannar.pdf

10:30 → 11:15 Coffee

11:15 → 12:30 Talks: Atomic Spectroscopy Experiments

Convener: David McKeagney (University College Dublin)

11:15 Unlocking the Lanthanides: High‑Accuracy Atomic Data at Imperial

Speaker: Christian Clear (Imperial College London)

11:50 Jets in the lab: radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of laboratory-scaled plasma flows

Speaker: Ylvie Gerritsma (ARCNL / VU Amsterdam)

12:10 Punch Out Plasmas

Speaker: Éanna Donohoe (University College Dublin)

12:30 → 14:00 Break: Lunch

14:00 → 15:05 Talks: Atomic Spectroscopy Experiments

Convener: Padraig Dunne (University College Dublin)

14:00 Many-body quantum chaos & lanthanide ions - what does it mean for NSM ejecta?

Speaker: John Sheil (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

14:35 Challenges in MIR Spectroscopy of Laser-Produced Plasmas: Insights from Water Absorption Measurements

Speaker: Chandan Bagadia (University College Dublin)

14:55 Progress in Vis-NIR Spectroscopy

Speaker: Eoin Fagan (University College Dublin)

15:05 → 15:50 Coffee Break

15:50 → 16:50 Chaired Discussion: Laboratory Astrophysics and Atomic Spectroscopy

Conveners: Kirsten Dowd (UCD), Stuart Loch (Auburn University)

19:00 → 22:00 Conference Dinner

Scottish Themed

Friday 12 June

07:30 → 09:00 Break: Breakfast

08:30 → 09:00 Hotel Room Checkout

Participants should check out of their room before starting the sessions.

09:00 → 10:10 Talks: Observations of Heavy Elements in the Cosmos

Convener: Albert Sneppen

09:00 Observing the R-process With Gamma-ray Bursts

Speaker: Jillian Rastinejad (NASA Einstein Fellow, University of Maryland)

09:35 Element observations in a moving Universe: from the Milky Way to DLAs

Speaker: Andreas Koch-Hansen (Zentrum für Astronomie Heidelberg, Heidelberg University)

KochHansen.pdf

10:10 → 10:55 Coffee

10:55 → 11:35 Talks: Radiative Transfer

Convener: Catherine Ramsbottom (University College Dublin)

10:55 Multi-dimensional kilonova radiative transfer with ARTIS

Speaker: Stuart Sim (Queen's University Belfast)

11:15 Composite Function-Bayesian Active Posterior Estimation (CF-BAPE): How to fit with few samples

Speaker: Rasmus Damgaard (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen)

11:35 → 12:30 Talks: Summary & Concluding Remarks

Conveners: Aayush Arya (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen), Andreas Bauswein (GSI)

11:35 Conference Summary & Concluding Remarks

Speakers: Aayush Arya (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen), Andreas Bauswein (GSI)